PROM WAR TO PEACE-

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17337, 8 December 1919, Page 9

PROM WAR TO PEACE-

BRITAIN SETTLING DOWN. RELEASE OF THE HOTELS. DEMOBILISING THE WOMEN. [feoh our own corbespondent. ] LONDON, Oct. 16. Government hotels are changing hands as rapidly as possible. East department is making an effort to return to normal life, either under the old office roof or m a specially-adapted public building. De Keyser's, the Goring and the Belgrave Mansions Hotel have already been vacated; the formal surrender of the Hotel Cecil to the owners will be made in a day or two, and the Grand will be handed to the owners in a month. Of particular interest to the general public is the announcement that the National Portrait Gallery, now occupied by a department of the War Office, and Hert- ! ford House, the home of the Wallace collection, will be vacated in a few weeksTo house the displaced staffs, Alexandra Palace is to be used, and an army of 4000 clerks will shortly be assembled there. It is unlikely that any of the larger hotels will be ready for occupation this year, with the possible exception of the Goring, which may be ready by Christmas. No final assessment has been arrived at yet in respect of any of the larger hotels, owing to the considerable amount of technical work involved. An official of the Office of Works said that in every case it is the duty of the owners to put in their claim. Each side then appoints its surveyors to inspect the building thoroughly. If they agree as to the damage for reinstatement there is no difficulty, but if they do not, the views of both parties are put before the Defence of the Realm Losses Commission for final dcision. " Inch by inch, fighting to the last attic," says one critic, " the great war departments are being driven from their gilded strongholds— the people's hotels. They are leaving behind them in some places what looks like the wreckage of a riot." ; Not Into the Kitchen. W.A. AC.'s, W.R.A.F.'s, W.RN.S.'s are being rapidly demobilised. Three thousand W.R.A.F.'s, the remnant of an army of 25,000, are, according to plan, to be demobilised by November 8. They

are mostly stationed around Reading, and are returning to work in the factories, their places having been kept open. Few, if any, are offering themselves for domes- | tic service. An Edgbaston, Birmingham, ! resident secured the services of one army I cook. He went so far as to have a shed ! put up in the back yard for her motorcycle. Most of the girls have been receiving from 15s to £1 a week and their keep, but the fact that families are prepared to pay army wages does; not seem Jto tempt them. Housewives declare that not one in a hundred are returning to domestic service, while the W.R.A.F. demobilisation officers say those of their cooks and general service women who are so disposed are being " snapped up, a statement which does not ftold out much hope for cookless kitchens. Crowded Medical School?.

Students released from Army service are flocking to the universities some of them as freshmen and others to resume the studies interrupted by the war. The number of medical students seeking admission is particularly large, and in some cases the accommodation for them is heavily overtaxed. In Edinburgh 300 students •will have to wait for admission until the spring. The Manchester University authorities are faced with considerable difficulty in accommodating the large number of students, the greater pressure being felt in the medical, chemistry, and technological departments. Before the "war the medical students at Manchester numbered 269. To-day th number is 633, including 3/5 women. A full-time chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics has been established there. At London Hospital the pre-war average attendance of students was 1400 to 1500; now it is 2000. Freshmen are there from all parts of the world, and many demobilised men have resumed study.l After the lean years of the war there is a boom in Edinburgh, and the authorities realise the urgent need for the expansion of the university buildings. Schemes are m hand for erecting a new chemical department and also for the establishment of a Lister institute for pathological teaching, costing, probably a quarter a million each. At I Glasgow the accommodation is taxed to i the utmost, and overflow arrangements ! have had to be made, particularly in rei gard to the faculty of medicine. New students in medicine cannot be accepted before the spring.

French Enterprise. General surprise has been expressed by American and British motor-car firms at the rapid recovery of the French motor-car industry as evidenced by the motor-car show in Paris. It was generally believed that French firms had been handicapped even more than British manufacturers in regarding to putting their work on a peace basis. The fact that one firm is turning out 35 cars a day has aroused great interest, in view of the difficulties of our own manufacturers to produce anything approaching this number. "I note," said the London representative of a Birmingham firm, "that the French mass production manufacturer stated that he had been assisted by his Government in the enterprise. This may account for their rapid recovery. During the war. when we were making shells, we j had every assistance from the Government. Material was thrust upon us. .Now that the markets are open there has been a general scramble for raw material and , some of us have come off badly. The ironmoulders' strike and other trouble® have not assisted us." The secretary of the Mencantile Marine Service Association states that a scheme is being considered whereby ex-naval officers will be enabled, to purchase Admiralty trawlers, and, if desired, by instalments. It is understood that the more applicants there are the greater is the possibility of the scheme materialising, and the secretary to the association accordingly invites ail ex-R.N.R- officers (including skippers) who wish to participate in the scheme to communicate with him, stating their name and rank, the amount of money they can put down, and their proposals as to method of payment.